Creating Rural Impacts for Healthier Babies (CRIHBs)
One region, working together so every baby gets a healthy start.
CRIHBs unites hospitals, clinics, public health, home visitors, community organizations, and families around one shared, data-informed strategy to improve maternal and infant health in rural West Tennessee — and help reduce fetal and infant deaths.
Help exists. Families need a clearer path.
In rural West Tennessee, support for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy first year is spread across long distances and many organizations. When they aren’t connected, families fall through the gaps. CRIHBs builds the relationships, shared data, and common playbook that let a whole region move in one direction — instead of each organization working alone.
A network that lasts.
- Families connected to the right services, sooner
- Providers and programs referring through a shared network
- Fetal-movement awareness built into everyday prenatal care
- Priorities shaped by regional data and family voices
- A lasting West Tennessee collaborative, led locally
Three strategies, one shared agenda
Locally shaped. Data-informed.CHANT / Tennessee Community Compass
Better awareness, referral coordination, and follow-through, so families reach the services already in their communities.
Count the Kicks
Fetal-movement education built into prenatal, hospital, clinic, and home-visiting routines, so parents know their baby’s normal and speak up when something changes.
A Community-Selected Initiative
A proven strategy chosen from regional data, community listening, partner expertise, and lived experience — shaped to Northwest and Southwest needs, which may differ.
Four years, built in phases
October 2026 – September 2030Listen + Build
Convene partners, form governance and a Family Advisory Council, listen to communities, set shared goals, and choose Initiative 3.
Launch + Learn
Train partners and care settings; launch referral workflows, Count the Kicks, and Initiative 3.
Improve + Expand
Use shared data, quality improvement, and community feedback to strengthen and grow what works.
Sustain + Transition
Evaluate, share results, build local capacity, and transition the coalition to a permanent community home.
The backbone, not the owner
Cumberland Pediatric Foundation provides coordination, implementation support, education, shared measurement, communication, and continuous improvement. Coalition members, regional data, and families with lived experience set the priorities.
Built for community ownership
CRIHBs builds governance, partnerships, and local capacity meant to outlast the funding period. Sustainability planning runs throughout, and by the end of Year 4 the coalition moves to a permanent home under community leadership.
Your community knows what it needs.
Bring that perspective to the table.There’s more than one way to be part of CRIHBs, and not every organization needs to make the same commitment. Some partners help lead the coalition or a regional workgroup. Others put a strategy into practice, share expertise or data, or help spread the word and connect families to resources.
Tell us a little about your organization and how you’d like to take part, and a member of our team will follow up.
Formal participating organizations are generally asked to name a representative and an alternate, take part in applicable meetings, and contribute to one agreed activity. We’ll talk through the details together.